The Bush administration’s top al Qaeda-hunter jumped into the waterboarding debate yesterday by saying “enhanced interrogation” of senior terrorists led to Osama bin Laden’s death.

Jose Rodriguez, who headed the CIA’s counterterrorism center from 2002 to 2005, said Abu Faraj al-Libbi, al Qaeda’s No. 3 man, began to reveal secrets just one week after he was subjected to harsh treatment.

Al-Libbi was not waterboarded but 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed was, and together they gave the CIA the nickname of bin Laden’s most trusted courier, officials said after Sunday’s raid.

“Information provided by KSM and Abu Faraj al-Libbi about bin Laden’s courier was the lead information that eventually led to the location of [bin Laden’s] compound,” Rodriguez told Time magazine.

But the Obama administration blasted Rodriguez’s claim.

“There is no way that information obtained by [enhanced interrogation] was the decisive intelligence that led us directly to bin Laden,” national security council spokesman Tommy Vietor said.